In June of 2010 and in the midst of The Great Expansion Apocalypse That Really Wasn’t, rumors were flying across the vast expanses of the Internet — at around the same time a Texas-led coalition was rumored to be heading west to form the Pac-16 — that Texas A&M and Oklahoma would be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. Fast-word roughly 13 months, and those rumors have surfaced yet again.

Ahead of a Thursday closed-door, “informational”meeting of the A&M Board of Regents that will involve a discussion of The Longhorn Network, the Sporting News, citing unnamed sources, is reporting that TAMU as well as OU are so concerned over the network and the accompanying disadvantage that the schools could turn to the SEC if their fears aren’t satisfactorily allayed. Additionally, weekly conversations have reportedly been taking place between A&M officials and the SEC according to 1620-AM in Omaha Wednesday evening.

There were no further details in TSN’s report regarding a potential A&M/OU jump to the SEC.

Shortly before TSN’s report as well as the Omaha radio stations addition to the rumor mill, Slive spoke to reporters and addressed the issue of expansion, and didn’t exactly slam the door shut on bulking up the nation’s top football conference.

“It is my job to make sure the SEC is the premiere league,” Slive said when asked about adding teams to the conference’s current 12-team lineup. “For me to exclude any action that would preclude that from happening would be inappropriate. …

“I can’t tell you what other people will do. I’m going to think about and do things that are in the long-term best interest of the SEC. That’s what I meant by what I said last time. If there’s a paradigm shift, we’re going to be strategic and thoughtful and we’re going to continue to be strategic and thoughtful. I’m going to leave it at that.”

The reason behind this latest round of rumors and the apparent renewed interest on the part of A&M and OU in the SEC is the Longhorn Network generally and the televising of high school games on that network specifically. It’s doubtful anything meaningful or game-changing comes out of A&M’s regents meeting tomorrow, although the possibility of that occurring down the not-distant-road seems to be growing by the day.

A day after it was announced on social media, Cal has officially added a Power Five transfer.

Sunday, Maurice “Moe” Ways revealed on Instagram that he would be transferring from Michigan to Cal. Monday evening, the Golden Bears announced that the wide receiver has signed a financial aid agreement with the university and will play for the football team in 2018.

Ways will be coming to Berkeley from Ann Arbor as a graduate transfer. The upcoming season will be his final year of eligibility.

In addition to the, uh, addition of Ways, Cal also announced that junior college outside linebacker Deon White has also been added to the roster.

“We are excited that Maurice and Deon are joining our program,” head coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. “Both have tremendous upsides and with their skill sets we feel that they will help us immediately.”

A three-star member of the Wolverines’ 2014 recruiting class, Ways was rated as the No. 8 player at any position in the state of Michigan.

In 25 career games, the former Detroit Country Day high schooler caught eight passes for 71 yards. Ways started two of those contests, with both of those starts coming during his redshirt freshman season in 2015.

A Charlotte native, McClendon appeared in 21 career games as a Wolfpack. He completed 26-of-47 passes (55.3 percent) for 262 yards with one touchdown against four interceptions while rushing 40 times for 156 yards and two touchdowns.

At Baylor, McClendon will step into a depth chart with a hole left by a transfer of its own. The Bears spent 2017 juggling their QB1 spot between Arizona graduate transfer Anu Solomon, sophomore Zach Smith and freshman Charlie Brewer. Solomon graduated and Smith has transferred to Tulsa, meaning McClendon will have to compete with the rising sophomore and brother of former Texas Tech and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer. The younger Brewer was Baylor’s best signal caller in a downtrodden ’17 campaign, hitting 139-of-204 passes (68.1 percent) for 1,562 yards with 11 touchdowns against four interceptions.

The ACC and the American have struck a deal for a football officiating alliance, the American announced Monday. The new program will see the two conferences cooperate on all things officiating, from training to scheduling to evaluation.

With the move, the ACC’s Dennis Hennigan will oversee the alliance, while the American’s Terry McAulay will step down as the league’s coordinator of football officiating and the American will hire a new supervisor of football officials.

“We are excited to partner with the ACC regarding the administration of our football officiating program,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement. “This alliance will provide both conferences with a deep roster of the best college football officials and will provide for greater efficiency and consistency in the training and evaluation of officials as well as enhanced opportunities for the recruitment of officials. We look forward to working with Dennis Hennigan, who was regarded as one of the top on-field officials in college football and has since become a leader on the administrative side. I also want to thank Commissioner John Swofford for his cooperation in reaching this mutually beneficial arrangement.”

The new alliance means ACC officials could oversee a Tulane-Tulsa game, while AAC officials would work a Clemson-Georgia Tech game. The ACC-AAC Alliance will go into effect for the 2018 season.

The ACC and American Athletic Conference are coming together with the intent on improving officiating oversight between the two conferences. According to an announcement from the AAC, ACC supervisor of officials Dennis Hennigan will serve as the lead administrator and take on the responsibility of hiring and training officials used in both conferences.

“We are excited to partner with the ACC regarding the administration of our football officiating program,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a released statement. “This alliance will provide both conferences with a deep roster of the best college football officials and will provide for greater efficiency and consistency in the training and evaluation of officials as well as enhanced opportunities for the recruitment of officials.”

The AAC reportedly removedTerry McAulay from his long-time role as the conference’s coordinator of football officiating, a role he held in the old Big East and carried over to the AAC amid conference realignment changes. The AAC confirmed McAulay will no longer be associated with the conference in that role. The statement from the AAC says the conference will hire a new Supervisor of Football Officials that will help manage the officiating in the AAC and act as a go-to contact for coaches around the league.

There is no word on whether or not this alliance will lead to a combined instant replay process with a central command hub for instant replay reviews. Instead, the alliance seems to focus on working with officials to ensure calls are being called consistently throughout each league. Having officials on the same page with calling penalties and managing a game has been a problem with few answers. This likely won’t guarantee a perfectly called game every week in each conference, but it may prove to be a step in the right direction.